Cisco Duo Reviews

Primarily, it was used as remote access for VPNs. It expanded our security posture, due to the increase in people working from home.

It certainly gave us a much more confident security posture as far as users coming on. 

Having all resources be external is reasonably important for us. Zero trust is certainly a target. Not that we are there yet, but we would expect everything to be considered mostly untrusted.

It eliminated trust for remote access, but not from inside our organization.

It was a simple way of providing two-factor authentication for remote access when we hit the COVID pandemic. It was very easy and quick to get it going.

Simple authentication for VPN was our primary function, and it worked well for that.

As far as remote access, simple access, and authentication to gateways, it was perfect.

Distributed access for ISE has been pretty strong for remote access and works very well.

It has very strong network connectivity, which works reliably and well. It was very easy for people to connect and the app worked as it should. Just once people connected, they typically had to use a different tool from that point on.

Duo applies and maintains well network connectivity across campus and remote locations. Remote access from people's homes and branches is also strong. Network connectivity is its strength and does that well.

We found it difficult to integrate it into our broader product family of Microsoft tools and other applications used across our organization. So, we have pulled back from this solution a little bit. It was easier to use Microsoft MFA, which integrated with everything and still did the two-factor authentication that we needed. 

There is nothing wrong with the product, as far as its functionality. It was just the breadth of support. It got harder and harder to integrate.

For what it does, it is fantastic. Once we started hitting Microsoft Office stacks, we then began to find its limitations.

It is not so good for securing access to our application and network. We found it harder to integrate, particularly with the Office stack, which is our primary application stack. We did get it working with a few other cloud applications that we were working with as part of our single sign-on story. However, it certainly wasn't easy to integrate in-house.

It created another step for users who don't know about the benefits, as far as the corporate benefits. I wouldn't consider having another app on their phones and having another thing to deal with a positive for our user community.

My organization has been using it for about two and a half to three years, since around the beginning of the pandemic.

Stability was good. It was well-designed and simple to implement. Its cloud interaction went very well. We never had any major stability issues. Yeah. We had nothing to complain about regarding its operational functionality.

We are a relatively small shop. It was well within our sizing. We never saw any issues with scaling. Obviously, the indications would be that it will scale very well, but nothing we had to experience with.

We didn't encounter the technical support much. Things worked very well. Functionality and reliability were never a problem. 

We asked a few questions about integration and so on. I think we got good answers back. We have had no big complaints, but we didn't have a lot of interaction with them.

We did not previously use another solution. We brought Duo in as a tool that we could rapidly and easily deploy. It did that job. We actually removed it later, as our primary tool, because we could achieve what we needed with a more integrated single multi-function tool (Microsoft MFA).

Duo brings in another application for users to deal with. Whereas, Microsoft integrates with their single authentication stack, allowing us to handle their own personal banking accounts and personal two-factor authentication needs in one app. This isn't Duo's strength, and it's not what we see Google and Microsoft doing out in the cloud.

Single-pane-of-glass management is important for us, but not critical, because fewer management points are better. Duo didn't provide a single pane of glass because of our different application stacks. Whereas, at least Microsoft Authenticator has allowed us to deal with most applications as well as their deep integration with Office.

Duo needs to adopt the same kinds of concepts that we see from all the major authentication tools, such as Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, third-party password tools like Bitwarden, and Secret Server from Delinea. All of these are beginning to incorporate more functions into them as a single security tool,  protecting me with authentication codes and six-digit codes that interact with Google, Microsoft, and any of those vendors as part of the tool. There are more functions, fewer tools, and less user impact, which are all benefits. I don't think Duo showed us that as a single tool. Duo did its job really well, but there are many jobs that have to be done.

Resilience security is all about business continuity. Resilience is an expected function of that, which is necessary and not optional.

For businesses wanting to build more resilience, I would say, "Keep it simple," and fewer moving parts is better. That is one of the reasons that we ultimately moved away from Duo. Not because anything was wrong with it, but we could collapse two functions down into one. I think simplicity is really critical. It reduces the amount of time our staff has to spend on it, making things easier. Simplicity would be my number one reason for building resilience into an organization. It allows you to understand better how you are dealing with threats and more simply respond to threats.

We are a valued reseller who works with Cisco and other vendors. We are primarily a Cisco networking shop across eight locations with 120-odd users who are mostly working from home or at least part-time working from home post-COVID. We have two major offices, a small data center, and five other locations, which are all remote access, using Cisco DMVPN. Microsoft is the application stack that we primarily use, plus cloud applications, and Juniper Mist for our wireless.

I would rate it as seven out of 10. In the world of network security, it is outstanding and very strong. I have a lot of positive things to say. I think that it needs to be much more seamlessly integrated with today's application stack.

My background is in electrical engineering. I have roughly almost thirty years in the industry, mostly in telecom, but the last ten years or so in enterprise. I'm currently in Anchorage, Alaska working for an organization that's Alaska-native company, which is more or less a conglomerate of different business lines. They work on everything from government contracts with NASA to construction to oil field operations, it's a lot of different businesses. 

Our Duo Security implementation was done about a little over three and a half to four years ago. It was about six months before I joined the company. It was done in response to a breach in the company that involved compromised credentials. 

I have personally been using Duo for as long as I've been in this company, so about three years.

We had a compromise of credentials and it resulted in a breach in the company. Had we had multifactor authentication at that time, we probably would have prevented that breach. In this day and age, I think multifactor authentication is an absolute requirement for anything you're doing. 

I lead an IT organization that has a significant amount of technical debt, and we're not in a zero-trust architecture yet. I'm pushing in that direction. Duo helps me considerably with my identity in an environment where I don't have zero trust. It's helping me bridge the gap until I can build a zero trust architecture. 

It has improved our cybersecurity resilience. Having multifactor authentication is critical because credential-based authentication is weak and it's going to be compromised. Having that additional factor in your authentication process is absolutely necessary. 

Right now, we're only using multifactor authentication. That's the most useful to us right now.

Reduction in risk is the whole point of multifactor. It's authenticating and augmenting the credentials and authenticating the individual that is trying to access your environment. It definitely reduces risk.

I would characterize Duo Security’s user authentication and device verification for helping to prevent identity-based attacks as good. It's intuitive for the users. It's easy to set up. The centralized management for our IT health service desk is good and doesn't take a lot of time. They're skilled with it. I really don't have any complaints.

The Duo Portal for our IT staff is efficient. It's utilized on a daily basis, and they're good with it. So I think it does allow staff to concentrate on other tasks.

I would say it's good at establishing trust for every access request, no matter where it comes from. Anything built by man can be broken by man. So there's always a challenge around that. They're trying to overcome those push bombing and challenges like that, and we're on that journey with them. 

Password management is difficult for us, especially for users. We would like to go passwordless. If we can go passwordless then you don't have a password manager. 

I am looking at other security features with Duo right now. We're currently looking at the passwordless options. We're looking at VPN displacement options. We're looking at those things right now. We haven't adopted yet. 

My impression of the stability is good. I haven't seen issues in the app, the portal, or anything.

Scalability is there. Our organization is somewhere around 5,000 employees, and that is not very many users for a platform like Duo, so I don't see any issues with scalability.

I've been using Cisco support for the better part of 25 years. I've seen good, I've seen bad. 

Cisco support has improved over the years, they tend to be better at getting back to you.

The only challenge is finding the right person sometimes. From what I've seen, being a named account is a big deal. When I came to this organization, they worked named accounts, and I worked really hard to become one because I knew the difference, and our support has greatly improved since becoming one. I have a person I can call and I know they can find the right person to help me get my problem solved. 

There are going to be problems with any system that's as complex as the products that Cisco sells. That's to be expected. It's really about how you get them resolved and how your partnership is there to make sure you're back up and running. Cisco, I believe, is really committed to that. 

I would rate them at an eight because there's no ten and because they have the in-house expertise to solve the problem once you can find them. They have the resources to bring to bear to solve just about any problem you can imagine. They are a committed partner. 

Positive

I have personally used other multi-factor authentication platforms. I currently do personally use others. Duo was selected by the company before I came there, and I've been very pleased with it.

I would say we have absolutely seen ROI. We have not had another breach that involved a loss of credentials since implementation.

The cost is very comparable to other solutions that I've used. I would in no way see any weaknesses in Duo over the other products, I would say it's a premium product, and it commands a premium price.

I would rate Cisco Duo Security an eight out of ten.

Our customers in the fertilizer industry use Cisco Duo for their security needs. The solution helps secure access to their private cloud, enabling client VPN and SSL VPN connections with ASA.

I find that the client VPN and multi-factor authentication (MFA) features are the most useful. Additionally, I appreciate the adaptive authentication capabilities. Integration with existing security solutions is easy, and the simplicity and user-friendliness of the product have satisfied me and my customers, as evidenced by subscription renewals over the past four years.

I think Cisco should allow easier integration with third-party equipment because Cisco's own equipment is expensive. This change would be beneficial for customers using third-party hardware, as the integration of Cisco software and Cisco Duo subscriptions with non-Cisco devices is currently limited.

I have been working with Cisco Duo for the past four years.

The deployment of Cisco Duo is straightforward. It generally takes about two days to complete.

I have received no complaints about stability from my customers.

I find Cisco Duo is scalable enough for my customers' needs.

I would rate Cisco's technical support at ten out of ten.

Positive

My customers have previously used SafeNet solutions. However, they switched to Cisco Duo because it offers more technical features and is cost-effective.

The initial setup of Cisco Duo is very easy. I would rate the ease of setup as a nine out of ten.

Cisco Duo is cost-effective, providing a good return on investment as it saves costs compared to other brands.

The price is reasonable for my customers. The approximate cost is around eighty dollars per user.

My customers previously evaluated SafeNet solutions.

If I were to recommend Cisco Duo to my customers, it would be for its cost-effectiveness and user-friendliness, as it offers a lot of features compared to other brands. My total rating for Cisco Duo is ten out of ten.

Private Cloud

Other

We use Duo Security for multi-factor authentication.

The product makes our organization more secure.

Duo is reliable and easy to use. I’m pretty happy with all of the features. The user experience is pretty good. People without any technical background can run the applications without any issues.

The technical engineers in the first line of support should improve their knowledge. We often have to bounce all the cases to different levels.

I have been using Duo Security for more than ten years.

Technical support is pretty responsive. When there was an issue, support was able to provide a solution.

Neutral

From the security team’s perspective, the solution is pretty easy to deploy. From an end user’s perspective, it is very easy to download it and add the device to the profiles.

We deploy the solution in-house.

The pricing is reasonable.

Since I'm not an admin, I don't know how the device gets set up. The product is pretty good at securing our infrastructure. It protects everything and hardly leaves anything open. The infrastructure is secured.

Duo Security cannot do it all when it comes to reducing the risk of breaches. It can probably provide up to 50%, and the rest depends on the user. Things like phishing emails depend on the user. There is nothing that Duo Security can't do. The product does a pretty good job of protecting the infrastructure.

Duo Security’s user authentication and device verification are very good and very reliable. When we get a message to upgrade, we upgrade the tool. I don't have to spend a lot of time to get the device up to date.

The solution is reliable for establishing trust for every access request. It definitely is able to establish trust for the identity to protect the infrastructure. Our organization doesn’t necessarily believe that all resources must be considered external. We try to strike a balance between convenience and security. We don't treat everything as external. We keep certain internal stuff that doesn't have to go through the authentication.

The product increases the awareness of the employees about cybersecurity. Every time I log in, a Duo box pops up saying that I am authenticated and not leaving everything wide open. Try it and get a trial base, and then you will see the difference the tool can make.

Duo is the first platform that we used. My organization did an analysis to see how many potential attacks we'll have and how much money will be lost if we do not deploy Duo. I am not sure about the metrics, though.

Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Our primary use case is for two-factor authentication. We also use the solution to secure Microsoft Remote Desktop, VPN, and SSH connections.

We deployed the product primarily to address security concerns, for example, implementing a more secure security posture using Duo Security.

My initial deployment of the product at a previous employer was across multiple environments and business units. We were primarily an active directory shop using Windows servers and desktops and Wise desktops, all of which utilized Duo Security as their two-factor solution.

In my current environment, the tool is implemented in different forms, on-premise and in the cloud. We deploy it everywhere.

Duo Security has been utilized in multiple organizations I've worked for, and it simplifies connecting securely via VPN, Microsoft Remote Desktop, and SSH.

The app has greater stability than rival solutions such as Google Authenticator, and Duo Push authentication is a valuable feature. 

The product worked to establish trust for as long as I've used it. It's a more functional solution than some competitors, which I discovered during the POC process. I think that Duo Security considering all resources to be external is one of the reasons why they are at the top of their field. 

Duo Security simplified establishing trusted connections, making it easier to implement distributed network solutions. I've always found it to be a good part of a layered defense strategy. 

Most of the end users when I was responsible for implementation, didn't quite understand the value of the solution until it was demonstrated. 

The tool does provide single-pane-of-glass management in my experience. I haven't implemented the solution for years, but I'm a user in my personal and professional life. Therefore, I can say that feature is essential in making Duo Security one of the critical steps in a defense-in-depth strategy. 

I never had any problems maintaining network connectivity, and it always performs well.  

Based on the logging I have seen Duo Security use, I would say their solution does help with threat remediation. It is an integral part of the defense strategy. 

A robust two-factor authentication solution is a massive part of a proper defense strategy, and having Duo makes it easier to implement and manage that two-factor solution. 

I would like to see some features simplified, such as securing, configuring, and implementing Microsoft Remote Desktop. Other than that, the solution was rock solid throughout my time administering it. 

I have been using the solution for six years.

The solution is very stable, I've never seen it go down.

The product is incredibly scalable.

I had to contact technical support on a few occasions, and my problem was always resolved, but it took some time and work to reach a workable solution. My experience with them is primarily positive, but there is room for improvement.

Neutral

At the job in which I carried out the POC for the solution, we used physical RSA tokens, and I have been at locations that use HID tokens. In my opinion, the soft token solution is far better; it's more user-friendly, and staff can utilize the strategy more efficiently, effectively, and, unfortunately for RSA, more securely than the physical tokens offer.

The basic deployment is very straightforward, though some Microsoft Remote Desktop support elements were a little more complicated. Primarily in getting the correct values and additional resources required for the deployment.

I wasn't involved in the deployment at my current company. At my previous employer, I did the POC and the initial training for our help desk groups.

I carried out the implementation myself; I was responsible for maintaining all of the integration points and training the help desk team members to support the product.

It's hard to precisely measure an ROI for security solutions, but I would say it provides a return.

I haven't seen any information on the pricing in four years, so I can't comment on that. 

We tested a SecureAuth solution that didn't meet our security standards. We wanted to try RSA Authentication Manager, but that was more complex for users, so we decided to go with Duo Security.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

When I carried out the POC for Duo Security at my former employer, I pitched it to them because it simplifies the login process and has excellent notifications. Physical tokens can be hard to read, especially for admins and staff trying to remediate problems late at night. We wanted a solution that was easy to set up and configure, and that is what we got; being a cloud-based solution, Duo Security is much easier to manage. We don't need to worry about managing, upgrading, and configuring much on our side; that's all handled in the cloud.   

The first company I mentioned working for was based in Ann Arbor, and Duo Security is or was based there too. I had personal relationships with several team members and recognized their product's value.

The solution improved trust models within our organization, significantly changing how people view connecting to the network. I don't think that it has had an impact on employee morale.

We use it citywide. I work for a city, local government, and we implemented it during the pandemic.

We support it for remote access to our network. Every city employee is required to use it, including the police and fire departments. However, it's hard to concretely say if the solution has helped reduce the risk of breaches in one way or another.
Apart from that, we focus on user education in cybersecurity and provide training to our end-user population to heighten awareness. This is in addition to the two-factor authentication, so we don't solely rely on that.

Duo Security has improved our organization from a security standpoint. The two-factor authentication has become a requirement in most cases. It is specifically required by cybersecurity insurance.

Not only are we doing it for requirement purposes, but it also gives us an additional layer of confidence. Duo Security's additional layer of security gives us added confidence that our network will be less likely to get hacked, compromised, or otherwise.

Moreover, we're very satisfied with the solution for helping secure our infrastructure from end to end. It definitely gives us an added layer of our confidence knowing that two-factor authentication is implemented. In our organization, network-wise, the confidence level is fairly high, and we're happy with it.

The way we involve the end users is with their mobile devices and mobile phone numbers. Once they do get involved, we are pretty confident that they are being reached out to through the number that we have in the system for them, and there's really no reason on our end to doubt the validity of those authentication requests when they come through. We trust Duo Security for every access request, no matter where it comes from.

Duo Security has become essential to our environment, considering today's time when our workforce is becoming more and more mobile.

Duo Security helped our organization improve its cybersecurity resilience. It has given that added layer of security and keeps the awareness on the user's end as well.

It's easy to use, frankly. All it takes really is for the end user to download the app. For me, I have an Apple Watch; I don't even have to wait for my phone. I can accept the prompt right there and just be on my way.

Moreover, we are comfortable and have high confidence in the solution's user authentication; device verification can prevent identity-based attacks.

One of the challenges was for the police force. A lot of them, at first, weren't keen on using their personal cell phone for, quote-unquote, city business. As a city, we require them to download an app for two-factor authentication. There is a little bit of apprehension for some users thinking, well, "How do I know this app is not collecting personal information from my personal device?" was the only obstacle we ran into. Overall, satisfaction is good.

To mitigate this problem, there was an option where the city would choose to just go with utilizing the app. There's another option where you can get a text message as opposed to having to download the app and accept what the app has on it.

I have been using Duo Security for three years. 

Duo Security is a stable solution. 

We never encountered any issues in terms of scalability. 

The customer service and support have been very good. We haven't had to call them many times. They've been able to assist every time there was an issue.

The responses have always been timely, and I haven't gotten any complaints from our security manager.

We used a different solution but had it in limited use only for our public safety team. That was a requirement at the time because of the type of information that they had access to. We were looking for something versatile. 

With Duo Security, the easier user access and user adaption were a little easier. We felt the solution was a little clunky at times, and we are already in the Cisco ecosystem, and that's one of their products. So we decided that was the best solution at the time. That's why we switched to Duo Security.

Implementation was fairly easy. Moreover, once you have it implemented, it's very minimal.

Duo Security doesn't require a lot of maintenance. From that standpoint, the solution has freed up time. However, it's not something that we had beforehand. In other words, it's not necessarily alleviating work. However, it is easy to manage.

The pricing was a lot more than what we were paying for our previous solution. However, our previous solution only covered two out of the sixteen departments within the city.

It’s a bit of a pie chart in that sense but we understood that with Duo Security, we were deploying it on a broader scale.

Overall, the pricing was higher than our expectations, but considering the circumstances during the pandemic and the increased demand, we understood the importance of making the right decision and moving forward with the best product.

I would say we are happy with it. However, I haven't conducted any recent market surveys to compare pricing, so it's difficult to make a definitive statement. Ultimately, what matters most is the satisfaction of our end users, and in that regard, it is currently very high.

We did look at some other products. We had a security manager who was responsible for conducting the necessary research and legwork. However, he did present us with a few different solutions, and our network manager was also involved in exploring options. Ultimately, Duo Security was selected as the preferred solution.

And also, what happened right before then, we had attended Cisco Live, had been exposed to Cisco Duo, and really liked what we saw. So we went into it with a bit of bias, to be honest, because we already saw it.

Duo Security is a great solution. The adoption and learning curve for the end user is low, in our opinion.

Overall, I would rate Duo Security an eight out of ten.

Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

You don't need any other Cisco security products in order to use it. That's what makes it easy.

Normally, people use it for multi-factor authentication. It's an easy-to-install multi-factor authentication platform.

Regarding the valuable features, I would say that Duo Security is easy to use, has speed, and is dependable.

It would be nice if there was a biometric option rather where you could accept with a fingerprint. Like, in an iPhone, they have fingerprint authentication and face ID. It would be nice if there was a biometric acceptance as opposed to just clicking and accepting.

I have been using Duo Security for thirteen years. I am a distributor of the solution.

Regarding stability, I don't know if that comes into question. With my clients, I haven't seen them facing stability issues.

I have seen it deployed in an organization with 50 people and another with 5,000 people.

I love the solution's technical support. Regarding the adjectives I would use to describe the support, I would say that the support was professional and accommodating. I wish that the support would be a little bit more prompt and a little bit more flexible because there are certain things that they will do and certain things they won't do. Then they push what they won't do back down to the distributor.

I also wish that they consider us as distributors because we're not the traditional partner. It's almost like we are Cisco. I wish that we could share more resources behind Cisco Firewall and behind Cisco's resources. I rate the support an eight out of ten.

Positive

The reason we chose Duo Security over its competitors is because it's a freebie that you can try and see how it goes. There is also the ease of integration with Duo Security. I don't really know of any other MFA that is as simple. With Duo Security, it's like, here's your authorization, and you need to click on the yes or no options.

I would say that the solution does increase security because it does require MFA, and as long as the company enforces it installed on a specific device, it works.

It does not secure my infrastructure from end to end and detect or remediate threats. It's not the function of the product.

Regarding my assessment of Duo Security for establishing trust for every access request, no matter where it comes from, I would say that it is absolutely dependent on how the company deploys it. If the company says just deploy Duo Security on an old device, then it's kind of a hope.

 The whole point of having Duo Security is that it considers all resources to be external. 

Multi-factor authentication in general helped my organization improve its cybersecurity resilience. Any MFA will do that.

I would tell those considering having Duo Security in their organization that it's easy. You don't need to have every other Cisco product out there since I know that, for a fact, you can do it with Sophos and Fortinet. You can do it with other products, not just Cisco.

I rate the overall product an eight out of ten.

We use it for MFA to secure our Outlook webmail and some other applications as well. We use Duo for pretty much anything that uses MFA. 

We were looking for increased security. We wanted to make sure that the person who is trying to log in to our services is actually who they claim to be. We wanted to lock down our applications more and provide extra security.

We have some on-prem servers for the gateways and it's in the cloud as well.

It has definitely made our company more secure. It's pretty easy to incorporate into any sort of application you want to. We also use it for single sign-on for certain applications and that has been nice. People hate passwords.

It's really great for remote workers and a hybrid workforce nowadays, for people who are trying to access their VPN or any applications from outside of the company. It helps us make sure it's someone who should be accessing those things. It does a good job.

It's definitely a factor in achieving that Zero Trust.

In a way, it helps us remediate threats more quickly. If someone is trying a brute-force attack, trying all the passwords they can, and they're not getting a response through Duo, you can see certain security threats that are happening and remediate them.

Duo has also had a big impact on employee morale. People like it. They feel that their data is more secure. Resiliency is very key to keeping people doing their jobs. Cyber security resilience has been very important for us. It used to be that security was not to be the main focus, but it's extremely important now. There are a lot of ransomware attacks and people need to be very cognizant of that. It's important to have redundant and resilient systems in place to support that.

It's nice to have that push notification with the app and it's pretty easy to use. Our users are usually pretty open to it, and it's pretty easy to onboard people.

It also seems like it's accurate, and you can add multiple devices to your account.

In addition, typically, if it detects that you're on an internal network, you can bypass the Duo portion of it. That way, people don't have to do MFA when they're on campus.

Another feature is the single pane of glass management. That's important for analytics and also for troubleshooting. It means there's one place that you go to at least start the troubleshooting process. It also helps with the user experience because you can manage all the user accounts from that one spot, including setting up new users, making adjustments, editing their preferences, et cetera.

It could be a little bit more intuitive when it comes to the sign-up process. I know they send out an email, but sometimes our users get a little confused. It could be an end-user problem, but Cisco could work on that a little.

I've been using Duo Security for about two years.

It seems very stable. I don't think there has been any point at which people have tried to use it and it has failed.

The scalability seems fine. As long as you get the licensing to support it, you can add as many users as you'd like.

We have five or six offices locally, and a few more in different states in the US. We also have one in Shanghai, but they're doing their own thing there. But everyone in our US offices uses it, they all get enrolled. Typically, people will install the app on their phones although they don't have to.

I don't think we've had to use technical support too often, which is a good thing about the product itself.

We didn't use an MFA before Duo.

When the solution was rolled out, I wasn't with the company, but we then expanded it in different ways and I have been involved in that. In terms of the initial deployment, from what I can tell, it was relatively straightforward. And from what I've seen since, it hasn't been too hard to expand it to other services.

It's definitely a valuable product to have.

We may have evaluated other options at a surface level, but we didn't really go too deeply into them. We pretty much went with Duo out the gate.

I would tell leaders who want to build more resilience within their organization to do it right now. It's definitely important and there are a lot of resources out there that can help them on that path. Duo helps with that.

It does what it's marketed to do.